In fabricating media for hard disk drives (“HDD”), bit patterned media (“BPM”) are used in the storage industry because of their high storage capacity. The storage capacity of BPM depends on the density of the magnetic islands, or “bits” on the media substrate surface. As such, research in the area of BPM fabrication has mainly been devoted to creating consistent and uniform patterns of bits on a BPM substrate.
As the resolution and pattern density of the BPM increases, an issue may arise regarding how to correct imperfections in the BPM template, such as missing and connected bits. Cr lift-off is another problem encountered in high-density BPM template fabrication.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for BPM templates having high density patterns, and methods for fabricating them, particularly for those BPM having a density greater than 1 Tdpsi. There is also a need for methods of fabricating BPM templates using a combination of lithography and self-assembly techniques.